Motive Wealth Advisors Has $317,000 Position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

Posted by on Apr 10th, 2023

Motive Wealth Advisors lifted its position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK – Get Rating) by 15.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,860 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 380 shares during the period. Motive Wealth Advisors’ holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $317,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ballentine Partners LLC increased its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 12.0% during the 4th quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 41,815 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,639,000 after purchasing an additional 4,484 shares in the last quarter. Capital City Trust Co. FL grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital City Trust Co. FL now owns 4,824 shares of the company’s stock worth $535,000 after buying an additional 150 shares in the last quarter. Drive Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 181.8% in the 4th quarter. Drive Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,775 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,204,000 after acquiring an additional 6,952 shares in the last quarter. BTC Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. BTC Capital Management Inc. now owns 69,893 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,755,000 after acquiring an additional 3,293 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arcus Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Merck & Co., Inc. during the fourth quarter worth $181,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.89% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Merck & Co., Inc.

In other news, EVP Steven Mizell sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.00, for a total transaction of $535,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 34,900 shares in the company, valued at $3,734,300. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 16,251 shares of company stock worth $1,736,570. 0.29% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on MRK. StockNews.com started coverage on Merck & Co., Inc. in a research report on Thursday, March 16th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 19th. Barclays raised their price objective on Merck & Co., Inc. from $110.00 to $128.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 20th. Societe Generale downgraded Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 28th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Merck & Co., Inc. from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $110.00 to $130.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 4th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $119.35.

Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Up 0.4 %

NYSE:MRK opened at $112.33 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $107.43 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $104.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.23. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 1 year low of $83.05 and a 1 year high of $115.49. The company has a market cap of $285.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 0.34.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 2nd. The company reported $1.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.56 by $0.06. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 43.47% and a net margin of 24.49%. The business had revenue of $13.83 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.66 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.80 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 6.87 EPS for the current year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 10th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.73 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 14th. This represents a $2.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.60%. Merck & Co., Inc.’s payout ratio is 51.14%.

Merck & Co., Inc. Profile

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Merck & Co, Inc is a health care company, which engages in the provision of health solutions through its prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, animal health, and consumer care products. It operates through the following segments: Pharmaceutical, Animal Health, and Other. The Pharmaceutical segment includes human health pharmaceutical and vaccine products.

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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

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